Words Left Unsaid, Actions Not Taken
by soothingsongs
Summary: Reid bumps into JJ at a grocery store.  Hmm, not the most romantic place to spill out your true feelings to your best friend.  Oh well. R&R. Slightly OOC.


A/N: Thanks to LoveforPenandDerek for pointing out a mistake. I put Henry as Reid's GRANDson instead of godson. That would be incredibly awkward.  


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_**Summary: Reid bumps into JJ at a grocery store. Hmm, not the most romantic place to spill out your true feelings to your best friend. Oh well.**_

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"Hmm, Hamburger Helper. This looks good."

Spencer Reid carelessly placed various canned and boxed goods into his shopping basket. It has been a fairly long time since he last entered a grocery store. Besides buying food to eat, the point of today's grocery shopping was to fill the empty and lonely cupboards in his apartment room. He didn't admit the fact that the apartment _itself_ was empty and lonely. He took quick glances at the shelves beside him and put in goods that caught his eye.

"I'll try this tonight," he mumbled to himself, putting the boxed pasta into the blue shopping basket that hung from his right arm. He walked ahead, still looking at the shelves filled with goods and not really paying attention to the people he passed, when all of a sudden he bumped into someone and lost balance. Reid's face and body fell straight onto the recently mopped floor with a thump.

His face started to flush red and he could hear the snickers of children who passed by him.

"Are—are you okay?" The words came from the mouth of the person who bumped into him. Reid's eyes went wide because the voice was awfully familiar and he knew who it belonged to.

"JJ?"

He looked up at the blonde woman who was, of course, who he assumed it was. It was JJ.

"Spence? Are you alright?" She offered her hand and he took it, quickly pulling himself up.

"Listen, I am so, so sorry," she apologized. She quickly gathered the goods that spilled, then placed them into the shopping basket that lay on the floor. "I was in a hurry and—"

"Jayje. It's you. I haven't seen you in weeks," Reid said as he licked his upper lip. "You look. . ."

He sighed and looked at JJ. She was still beautiful. She had her hair in a loose ponytail and was dressed in a long-sleeved, blue button-up and flair jeans. It reminded Reid of the day when she left—the day when he could only say a few words to her because his head was filled with sad thoughts of her farewell.

_. . .beautiful_, Reid mentally finished his sentence. He didn't say this out loud. Instead, JJ completed the sentence.

". . . the same," she ended. "I know. I haven't changed much." She laughed lightly and Reid smiled at the sound of it. It's been so long since he'd last heard her laugh.

"So, uh, how are you?" he asked in an attempt to keep the conversation going.

"Fine."

"How's life, I mean. Work? Home? My godson? Will?" He really wanted to keep the conversation going and one-word responses from JJ just wouldn't do.

"Work's great. I miss you guys too much, though. I miss the BAU," she started.

"Everyone misses you as well." Reid sighed because JJ wasn't going to the BAU anytime soon.

"So . . . how's the replacement?" she asked.

No one can replace you, he thought to himself. "Garcia is taking over as the team's media liaison. She's doing pretty well." He gestured for her to continue.

"Well, everything at home is okay. I still stay in Dale City with Henry," she said.

"I thought so. You know, it's only 26 miles from the Pentagon. It would take approximately 36 minutes to drive there. Well actually," he chuckled as if his next words held humor, "45 minutes with traffic."

She rolled her eyes at his usual informative responses. "I'm still JJ and you're still Reid. You're still the incredibly smart and caring friend I know and love."

_Friend_, he thought to himself. His smile slowly disappeared when she said that. He knew he should only love JJ as a friend—as a sister even—but he couldn't stop feeling something beyond it. It was always JJ in the beginning.

Ever since he started working at the BAU, the lovely media liaison would always catch his eye. It started with a little crush that he tried to get rid of. Besides the fact that they, as co-workers, should not be dating, JJ would never go out with someone like Reid. That's what kept Reid from doing anything. He might be shy and awkward around females, and he had to admit that he was like that when he was first introduced to JJ, but when he talked to JJ—when he heard JJ's voice—his heart would stop. _Figuratively_, he'd remind himself.

"Thanks," he said, licking his upper lip once more.

"So . . ."

There was a brief awkward silence.

Spencer Reid sighed. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his hands tucked deep into the pockets of his brown slacks.

"So," he said awkwardly.

JJ smiled one last time. "I guess I'll be going now—"

At that exact moment, Reid roughly pressed his lips to her. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing; he knew that he would never get the chance to do it again. In his mind, it all made sense. He was meant for JJ, but the real question was: Was JJ meant for him?

Why were his lips still on hers? He thought about pulling away, but his body reacted differently. His lips stayed on JJ until he realized one thing.

_JJ wasn't kissing him back._

The kiss only lasted for a couple of seconds when he realized that she wasn't kissing him back. She didn't want to . . . and when he opened his eyes to look at her, he realized he had made a mistake.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I—I don't know what went over me. I—I— I love you JJ. I just know you don't—Why did I even do that . . ."

He left the shopping basket on the floor as he walked away. "Goodbye, JJ." He hated himself for what he did. He hated himself for being a genius, yet he didn't know anything about affection. Love. He didn't know love. He thought there was a slight chance that maybe, maybe she might love him back the way he loved her. She didn't.

He didn't even look back as he walked away—away from the girl that wasn't given the chance to say anything—the girl who stood motionless and whispered, '_I love you too, Reid_.'

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"_**One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.**__**" -James Earl Jones**_


End file.
